The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their thirteenth game of the 2024 regular season on Sunday afternoon at home against the Cleveland Browns. They’ll enter that contest as home favorites as well. Below are five key things that I believe the Steelers will need to do to come away with their tenth win of the season on Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Learn From Myles Recently Traveled – The Steelers offense certainly didn’t handle Browns DE Myles Garrett very well a few weeks ago. In Cleveland, last year’s Defensive Player of the Year almost nailed down a repeat for 2024 thanks to him registering three sacks and a forced fumble against the Steelers. The Steelers’ chip and double-team plan that they had in place for Garrett wasn’t properly executed and the effort wasn’t there on top of everything else.
In the Sunday rematch in Pittsburgh, the Steelers better make sure to account better for Garrett, who can and will line up on either side of the line and possibly in the middle of it a time or two as well. A Garrett repeat of his Week 12 sack threepeat will likely result in the Steelers losing again to the Browns. Garrett is essentially the Browns’ pass rush, especially for this game due to injuries on Cleveland’s side of the football.
Limit Winston Extensions – One thing that was evident prior to the Steelers’ first meeting with the Browns was how effective QB Jameis Winston was as creating explosive plays in situations that he was able to extend on. Winston is not likely to extend plays within the pocket, but he has shown the ability to do so outside of it. The Steelers found this out about Winston in the first meeting. Not only did Winston create a few big passing plays outside the pocket a few weeks ago against the Steelers, he also scrambled for a red zone touchdown on a fourth down early in the fourth quarter.
I the Week 12 meeting between the Steelers and the Browns, Pittsburgh OLB T.J. Watt didn’t have a great showing as a pass rusher. Watt should rebound in this rematch and assuming that’s the case, he and fellow outside linebackers Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig must do a better job of containing Winston inside the pocket and forcing him to get the football out much quicker. The Browns will likely start Germain Ifedi at left tackle again on Sunday and that will be a huge advantage for Highsmith and Herbig. Not allowing Winston to create big plays as part of his extending will go a long way in helping Pittsburgh win this rematch.
Put Everything On Red – The Steelers have struggled on both sides of the football when it comes to the red zone. Yes, even on the defensive side of the football as well. In fact, opposing teams are 81.8% in the red zone against the Steelers in the last three weeks. Only the San Francisco 49ers defense has been worse during that span. Oh, and for the last four weeks, the Steelers’ defense has allowed an 85.7% red zone scoring rate against them. That’s 12 of the last 14 red zone drives ending in touchdowns. The Browns were 3 of 4 on their red zone trips back in Week 12.
As for the Steelers’ offense, they are just 6 of their last 18 red zone trips in the team’s last five games. In three of those five games, the Steelers’ offense was a combined 1 of 10 inside the opponent’s red zone. The Steelers’ offense has moved the ball quite well for most of the season. Even so, the unit is not scoring enough touchdowns for the total yards they are driving and the number of plays they are running. Red zone success on both sides of the football needs to improve starting on Sunday at home against the Browns.
Be Cool, George – The last thing the Steelers need to happen on Sunday is for Steelers WR George Pickens to lose his cool and get multiple penalties, or even worse, ejected from the contest. Pickens, who was fined this past week for two actions that he had in the team’s Week 13 game, has had a war of words, of sorts, this past week with members of the Browns’ secondary. This war of words is carried over from the last meeting between the two teams and likely the last play of that contest, the Hail Mary attempt.
Pickens’ two fines this past week were for taunting and a violent gesture. Both of those infractions resulted in penalty yardage this past Sunday. You can bet the Browns defensive backs will be doing everything they can on Sunday to get Pickens to lose his cool as well as off his game. That can’t happen as Pickens needs to provide several big plays to help the Steelers win this rematch. The cooler that Pickens is on Sunday, the more likely he taunts the Browns with his play on the field.
Cut Out The Negativity – Not counting incomplete throws, the Steelers had 17 plays on offense that gained zero or negative yards in their first meeting against the Browns a few weeks ago. That number includes offensive penalties and obviously negative running plays as well as sacks. That high percentage of negative plays played a part in the Steelers ultimately losing to the Browns in Cleveland. The Browns, by the way, only had eight such plays with four of those being penalties.
The Steelers have a much better offense than what they showed a few weeks ago in Cleveland., In fact, the unit still managed To register six explosive plays of 20 yards or longer in that contest. limiting the negative offensive plays, especially the runs and penalties, will certainly help aid in beating Cleveland on Sunday in Pittsburgh. The Steelers were on the right side of several key statistics in the first meeting between the two teams. The negative play column, however, went in Cleveland’s favor.
